Intimidation

In case you missed it, Anya wrote the following comment to Friday's post:
"I have to confess I'm too intimidated to attempt an improved version of the challenge sentences. What if I'm wrong? I can dish it out, but I surely don't like having it handed right back to me. I'll admit it, I'm thin-skinned.
after all, I'm a writer--it's one of our defining characteristics."

A couple of others have written that they are intimidated by the blog. Help me retool the blog so it becomes a helpful resource rather than one that frightens readers away. My intent was to facilitate some lively give-and-take. How do we get there?

Trivia answer: The Winston slogan should have been "Winston tastes good AS a cigarette should." The new slogan, which was used in both print and broadcast advertising along with the unchanged original slogan was "What do you want, good grammar or good taste?"

Friday's challenge: After the suspect turned up missing, her guilt or innocence became a moot point for the prosecution.

Answers:
1) If the suspect turned up, how could she be missing?
2) Her guilt was at issue. If she were not guilty, then she would be innocent. Adding "or innocence" is redundant.
3) The correct definition of "moot" is "debatable," not "irrelevant" or "a dead issue" as it is now commonly used. Paula LaRocque (Championship Writing) recommends avoiding the word to avoid confusion.
4) The suspect's guilt would not become either debatable or irrelevant to the prosecution just because her whereabouts were unknown. Prosecutors would remain convinced of her guilt.

From an AP story we published Friday:
"The search that lead the state's Council on Postsecondary Education to hire interim President Brad Cowgill for the full time post was not proper, Conway said as part of a nonbinding legl opinion released Thursday."

Anyone want to take a stab at editing the piece? I find one spelling error, one style error and one wrong word choice.